Vellassco , STOP glorifying Hedo ,Sorry couldn't... I'm a fan... looking different angle... if its giving you pain to hear something from different tone and if you would like to be in a bipolar environment then all i can say good luck!

who cares how he played 2,3,5 10 years ago Sorry but it was just 2 weeks ago( not even years) before he signed here.

this past season was terrible for the entire team with some exceptions and Hedo wasnt one of them ( sadly) , such a big hope turn into s..t , this guy was the biggest dissapointment in my opinion I'm presuming you were the same guy and saying same things when team was hitting 30 wins (no Calderon dayz) prior All-star game and giving high hopes for future on both side of the floor, right? good

zero defensive skills , his offence was like lottery you just never knew how many points he is going to score ...5 or 9 or 12 on very good day ,but when he came here hopes where for more like 18-22 PPGWell, thats good if your basketball knowledge is limited with per game stats. Basketball is bit more complicated than your imagination, dude.
Btw sorry but when your franchise player and your "project" player were the focal point of offense and taking total 44 shoots per game there were no space for another 22 PPG player in your coaches plan

he reminded me of V.C. cry baby this past season. Anyways I do hope that he starts playing BBall with some BALLS next season along with Bargniani and Bosh or he will become like V.C. is to Toronto this days.Believe or not but he has no any previous record for being cry baby before he joined Raptors. May be thats may say something to you. May be just Torontos' cold weather huh. Money? nah. He was 7 mil/year guy. 7 million its easy to say, hard to count. Exactly due to "COLD" weather!

I must admit, I never liked Hedo, although I agree that he can be a very good player when he wants. And I don't like the Hedo because of the way he looks or not necessary because he didn't try enough this season to help Raptors. He is just in that category of players that I don't like: Manu Ginobili, Chris Bowen, Varajeo, Kevin Garnett and so on. All of these players are not necessary bad players, some of them are even great with championship rings and probably future HOF. Is just their way of playing, doing whatever it takes to kill the beauty of the game: throwing elbows to head, flip-flops, permanent complaining to officials. On my books, Hedo is in this category for his driving thru defense regardless if is possible or not just flip the ball and then always complain to the officials (2 FT if he misses or 1FT for continuation) not to mention the offensive charge. My worst nightmare regarding Raptors is if CB4 leaves Raptors and the Raptors game will became "give the ball to Hedo and get out of his way, let him bully his way to basket".

So, please convince your darling Hedo to give up the money in Toronto and get the hell out of town! Grrrr .... the pizza is on me

Ahh. How can i quote your post i don't know, dude. Too many contradictions in the same paragraph. Its really hard to take you seriously. On the other hand Its a good thing to be seemed honest.

Not: What a nice nightmare btw. They were playing at the Finals with your nightmare plan when your franchise was taking Q&A on post season media conference last year.

Ahh. How can i quote your post i don't know, dude. Too many contradictions in the same paragraph. Its really hard to take you seriously. On the other hand Its a good thing to be seemed honest.

Not: What a nice nightmare btw. They were playing at the Finals with your nightmare plan when your franchise was taking Q&A on post season media conference last year.

Sorry man, I know that what I said is not what you wanted to hear, but this is my take on Hedo. I just don't like his style. If he played last year in finals, that was for Orlando Magic and I can argue that the fact Orlando Magic got that far was because of Howard not because of Hedo. Hedo just played hard in order to score a big contract afterwards. Once he secured the contract, he didn't care anymore. If Hedo would have been the reason Magic played the finals, based on the same logic, Raptors should have been contenders this year. Or because of poor Hedo's play, Raptors didn't even made the playoffs. Don't get me started on Jay Triano, because he is on my "hit" list as well .
I don't have anything against you, you look like a passionate Hedo's fan and I respect your opinion. But please respect my opinion as well, even if you don't like it.

Sorry man, I know that what I said is not what you wanted to hear, but this is my take on Hedo. I just don't like his style. If he played last year in finals, that was for Orlando Magic and I can argue that the fact Orlando Magic got that far was because of Howard not because of Hedo. Hedo just played hard in order to score a big contract afterwards. Once he secured the contract, he didn't care anymore. If Hedo would have been the reason Magic played the finals, based on the same logic, Raptors should have been contenders this year. Or because of poor Hedo's play, Raptors didn't even made the playoffs. Don't get me started on Jay Triano, because he is on my "hit" list as well .
I don't have anything against you, you look like a passionate Hedo's fan and I respect your opinion. But please respect my opinion as well, even if you don't like it.

Off course i respect. Especially against a guy who try to be honest. But, pls, you full of contradictions Man. Whenever you write something more , you are adding more to them.
I "honestly" don't remember where i said Orlando Magic got that far was because of Hedo. This is a team sport, not tennis. Not just Dwight Howard even Lebron James couldn't reached the Finals just alone himself. They felt they need to add Shaq, A. Jamison, J. Moon A. Parker to find right combination along with last year squad, huh. You have to find a right combination to gain a ring. It valid for all team sports.

My reaction was to your nightmare - "if CB4 leaves Raptors game will became "give the ball to Hedo"- Yeah Last year Magic were giving the BALL to Hedo and he was the facilitator. They reached the Finals. Nothing more , nothing less...

"If Hedo would have been the reason Magic played the finals, based on the same logic, Raptors should have been contenders this year. Or because of poor Hedo's play, Raptors didn't even made the playoffs."

Are you speaking with yourself, Man ? I must admit you are too cute as you are doing it.

"Well, thats good if your basketball knowledge is limited with per game stats. Basketball is bit more complicated than your imagination, dude. "

You seem like a smart guy , but one thing you seem to forget NUMBERS DONT LIE !
Second , I know what basketball is probably better than you might think .My imagination you say ? I read what others say , I follow the stats , I watch games and then I come to my own conclusions , pretty much like you only I dont get upset when I come across different opinion than mine .

Since you are so expierienced in game of baskeball , why dont you share some of your basketball credentials Pal ?

Before all, i should say I'm one of the follower of your posts from the beginning of my membership. You have many valuable assets like wide/deep basketball knowledge, fair/objective approach to the subjects, intellectual personalty etc. It's really being great reading into your posts.

My reaction to describe the main causes of failure in 2 words has always been "defense" (incl. effort)and "coaching"...not so much individual players. I do believe that there is an unemployed coach out there who would have got more out of the team than Triano. So I disagree with your premise. And believe me when I write that apart from RR and other US based publications I do not follow basketball thru the local media (they are hockey and possibly baseball pseudo experts.. first...and they were assigned the basketball beat).

defense & coaching ?

NO. My Root Cause Analysis is pointing a different address for 2009-2010 season failure:

MANAGEMENT

I'm not saying radical roster change was fault. They addressed some issues before season start and 50 wins target was a must for impatient fan base. Hedo trade was crucial decision alone itself and it's also ended up with too many assets in return at the franchise corner stone year (CB4 contract). I'm also not saying BC is the wrong guy for the franchise. He is a smart guy who knows how to dance with other wolves. But he stuck there at the pre-season and did not showed his good management skills for rest of the year (except team meeting after Atlanta disaster at the first half, what else?).

This teams biggest suffer was that they have not been managed well throughout all year long. Crisis Management, Paternalistic style, Democratic style, Leadership style what ever you want to call them but we have seen none of them during the regular season. If you do drastic squad change and give all control to an assistant coach in his NBA first full experience year, you have no right to say: we wish we could returned the beginning of pre-season with same squad. "We've learnt too many things this year!!!" . Its painful to hear that but its also a truth.

Management is kinda art. Using the right employee in right position, forcing and preparing right conditions to perform those employees at their upper limits during all year long and control all variables right in time art.

For instance, If you determined there is some locker room issues in your team and if you think "Being a team phenomenon" is lack and if its returning you as "inconsistency" then you should take some actions to prevent occurrence of this phenomenon . i.e: organize some activities to create friendly atmosphere btw players etc. You can not just say: aah i wish we could have a "glue" guy in our roster and do nothing.

If you think some of your employees is having some issues with coaching staff you can not let the things solve alone itself. Do somethings and if you can not find a mid solution cut it out, take some serious actions and do not let this occurrence effect to other things.

If you think you were having lack of toughness on defense, so do not waste this trade opportunity at mid way through season and do not play gamble by expecting too much from Regiee Evans (as if he had defensive monster record in his career, hah, Plus he had serious injury). Marcus Camby ? Now you are mentioning to exceed way over Luxury Tax after you lost all. Bullshit. Do it when its necessary. You had opportunity to take home court advantage ( 29 wins and 35 games to play) and may be chance to be a contender. Who knows. Why did you waste it. Grrr

I can give more samples but its not necessary i think.

I do not think biggest suffer was defense. This team have shown some glimpses of good defense even against athletic teams (i.e: Last Atlanta and Bobcats games) and also shown some total basketball examples to us ( Clevland game at acc without Bosh was excellent sample for it for instance).

I'm including "coaching" into Management team and saying talent wise this teams limit was 3rd seat after Clevland and Magic at Eastern this year and they performed way lower than their limits by the help of bad management.

Do it when its necessary. You had opportunity to take home court advantage ( 29 wins and 35 games to play) and may be chance to be a contender. Who knows. Why did you waste it. Grrr

Why are you asking us? Ask Hedo, he was the one pooping on the court not us, the fans.
You are right about management, but what you don't realize is that the biggest mistake this management did is the deal they gave to Hedo. So far, totally failure from Raptors perspective. Defense? Hedo was complaining about "ball" all year along, but you don't need the ball on defense, just go and get it.